US stocks edge up after Dow's record day

NEW YORK (AP) — An encouraging job-market report helped nudge the stock market higher today, a day after the Dow Jones industrial average tore through its previous record high.

The Dow was up 14 points, or 0.1 percent, to 14,268 shortly after noon.

Companies added 198,000 workers to their payrolls in February, according to payment processor ADP. The survey also revised the previous month's numbers up: ADP says employers added 23,000 more jobs in January than first reported.

In other trading, the Standard & Poor's 500 index was down one point, or 0.1 percent, to 1,538. The Nasdaq slipped six points, or 0.2 percent, to 3,218.

The Dow closed Tuesday at 14,253.77, clearing the previous closing record by almost 90 points. The index of 30 big corporations has more than doubled since hitting a low during the financial crisis in March 2009.

In the past, stock indexes have often drifted lower in the months after breaking through previous record highs.

David Brown, director of Sabrient Systems, an investment research firm, sees plenty of reasons for the market to keep climbing, however. People are putting their savings into the stock market again. And the alternatives, like bonds, are hardly appealing.

"There is literally nowhere else to go," Brown said. "Do you really want to make 1.9 percent on a 10-year Treasury? You won't make any money doing that."